Adrian Beltre endured one of the worst seasons of his career a year ago, hitting just eight home runs and slugging under .400 for the first time since he was a 19-year-old rookie with the Los Angeles Dodgers. His difficulties had a lot to do with why he wound up in Boston this season. He wanted the chance to improve his statistics in order to get better contract offers than he received last offseason.

Beltre has bounced back. Beltre, in fact, has spent much of the season at least on the fringe of the discussion for the American League’s Most Valuable Player award. After his numbers took a small step backward in July and August, he’s now hitting again in September: He’s getting on base at a .458 clip and his slugging percentage is .738 in his last 11 games.

Perhaps most importantly, he’s played himself into position to do just what he and agent Scott Boras hoped they’d be able to do once his one-year contract expired: Cash in.

Not many teams can afford to buy a ticket to the Beltre sweepstakes, but several big-spending teams — the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim among them — likely will be in the market for third basemen this winter.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, have a handful of in-house options at third base — Jed Lowrie, for one, and Kevin Youkilis if a new first baseman can be found at a reasonable price. But there aren’t any corner infielders on the free-agent market who can match what Beltre has done for the Red Sox this season. [...]

Baseball players might peak at the age of 29 or 30, but there certainly is a history of corner infielders producing well into their early 30s — and a three-year deal for Beltre would only last until he was 34 years old. A player as durable as Beltre has been — before a groin injury last season, he’d played in 140 games every year since 2002 — probably is going to hold up better than most, too.

That doesn’t mean the Red Sox should go ahead and throw buckets of money at Beltre without thinking long and hard about it. That does, however, mean it’s probably less risky to sign Beltre for three years at age 31 than it was to sign Lowell for three years at age 33.

Oh well, a Dodgers fan can always dream, right? And at this point, what's a bit more debt, huh Frank?